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People seeking to partake of the American dream have always been central to America’s identity and strength. How the country treats them goes straight to its core values. The Democrats cannot sit this one out, especially when the Republican leader is so blind to the true sources of America’s greatness.

President Donald Trump and the words that he uses are shaping a political culture that will be here we’ll after he leaves office. New York Times op-ed columnist Bret Stephens writes…

Conservatives used to understand the danger. Why care about social formalities, modes of dress, niceties of speech, qualities of restraint? Not simply because manners make the man, although they do, but because manners also shape political cultures. How does a conservative movement that is supposed to believe that everyhealthy society needspowerful moral guardrails give itself over to a president whose every other utterance cheerfully knocks those guardrails down?

The caravan won’t reach the United States for multiple weeks. So, why are we sending 5k troops down to the border on Friday? Perhaps because it’s a political ploy to whip up fear and then look strong. They’re trying to be play us for fools.

The Trump administration is building tent cities because the caravan is trying to enter the United States to get political asylum as refugees. Despite what’s said in speeches and tweets, they’re not trying to enter the US illegally.

Over the past three decades, successive American administrations have worked diligently to vanquish the anti-American DNA in Mexico. We were overcoming the suspicions that a history of invasion, territorial loss and imperial intent had bequeathed. That kind of trust is slow to build, and remarkably easy to destroy. It is being destroyed now.

We all want to fault others, but each of us is very much to blame. Quit sharing stories without even reading them. Quit tweeting your every outrage. Quit clicking on garbage. Spend a few minutes to verify the trustworthiness of what you read.

The Arab world needs a modern version of the old transnational media so citizens can be informed about global events. More important, we need to provide a platform for Arab voices. We suffer from poverty, mismanagement and poor education. Through the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face.

During the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, he talked about wanting fix Washington and the establishment, which hasn’t been working for the American people. He was going to “drain the swamp.”

The reality is that he’s done the exact opposite. Because of his political naïveté, every parasitic political opportunist has latched on with the hope it’ll help them maintain and further rise to power (i.e Paul Manafort as a prime example).

There is one part of DC that is “draining the swamp” and that’s the Justice System (including the investigation by special counsel Bob Mueller.)

Congressman Chris Coons has been recently indicted on charges of insider trading. He helped nominate Trump at the Republican convention. He just suspended his campaign for re-election, which I’m sure will reduce his chances of getting re-elected. That’s draining the swamp.

I wonder if we are looking in the wrong places to assess the state of the world. The twilight of an era, as in Vienna a little over a century ago, is always murky. With nationalism and xenophobia resurgent, examples of humanity’s basest instincts abound. They grab the headlines. At the same time, community and sharing, often across national borders, through digital platforms like Airbnb, BlaBlaCar and Facebook, expand. This is the world’s undercurrent.